I Knew It Was Her
by heyarnoldfangirl15
Summary: Arnold Shortman has always known that Helga Pataki isn’t as bad as she acts. When he went on a date with the French girl Cecile, it wasn’t really Cecile; it was Helga. And Arnold already knew all along, but went years without saying anything. [One-shot] [Sort of an AU]


**Author's note: this is just a one shot. I wrote it a few weeks ago and it's based on a part of a dream I had. Again haha. It's in just Arnold's point of view.**

**Also, there is one song reference, brownie points for you if you catch it :)**

Helga Pataki was always an interesting girl.

She was not like the other girls. She was never afraid to say what she thought. She was sassy, bold, boisterous, and always picked on others.

Especially me...

Helga Pataki knew what she was doing.

But I always knew that she wasn't as bad as she acted.

I knew that she was sensitive and had feelings, just like the rest of us.

And I was proven right on one crazy day.

Valentine's Day.

It all started in Miss Slovak's fourth grade class. She was my teacher only for the first part of fourth grade. Then later, we got a better teacher, Mr. Simmons. It was Valentine's Day, and we were creating some arts and crafts, aka Valentines, for someone we care about.

I had been crushing on Ruth McDougall for a long time. Looking back on it, why?? I don't know why I had a crush on her.

Well anyway, I had a crush on Ruth McDougall. She was so pretty. She had brunette hair that went down to her shoulders, and was spiked. Did I mention that she has a football head like me? I think that was my favorite part.

I didn't know anything about Ruth besides what she looked like. But I wanted that to change.

I decided to make something for Ruth. As I made my valentine, Miss Slovak announced that we got letters back from our pen pals.

My pen pal's name was Cecile, and she was a French girl.

"Arnold, here's your letter from Cecile." Miss Slovak said.

"Thanks." I said.

_BRRRRING!!_

"Oh, it's time for recess. I'll just give this to you later." Miss Slovak said.

I didn't understand why she couldn't give it to me now, but boy am I glad she didn't. Or else this whole thing would've never happened.

During recess, I saw Ruth sitting by herself doing her nails or whatever.

She seemed to have a lot of Valentines sitting next to her. I guess a lot of people liked her too...

I sneakily set my Valentine signed "anonymous" next to her.

The valentine said to meet her at Chez Pierre. A fancy French restaurant.

After recess I finally got my letter from Cecile.

Oh, dang...

This was messy.

It said that Cecile was coming to visit and wanted to meet at Chez Paris.

Which was right across the street from Chez Pierre!

If Ruth showed up, how was I gonna be on a date with both of them?

After school, I went to go see Gerald. My super reliable best friend.

I told him about this situation.

"My god Arnold. You're always getting yourself in messy situations. You are in 4th grade for pete's sake. And already going through girl drama." He said.

"Just help me!" I said.

"Conveniently the restaurants are right across the street from each other. You're lucky for that.

Just make up an excuse to leave and go see the other person."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it always works in movies."

"But we're not in a movie-"

"We're in a show though. Close enough."

"Wait what?"

"Heh. Forget what I said.

Do you want to go through with it or not?"

"Yeah, sure."

"I'll cover for you. I'll be there outside."

"Okay thank you."

A few hours later or whatever, it was time for the date.

Or should I say dates...

I arrived at the Chez Paris/Pierre area. I decided to head to Chez Paris to see Cecile first.

I sat down at a table inside the restaurant.

"Bonjour Arnold!" I heard, though it wasn't being pronounced correctly.

I looked at the girl who said that, and she looked nothing like Cecile.

I knew what Cecile looked like because I had a picture that she sent me.

Cecile had reddish brown hair that was in bangs and she liked to wear this blue beret.

But this girl had blonde hair that was in these curly buns, that almost looked like a poodle.

She had blue eyes, and a pink hair bow on top of her head.

She was wearing a pink long sleeve shirt with red stripes, a hot pink skirt that went a few inches above her knees, red high heels, and red lipstick.

I just knew she looked nothing like Cecile.

And her voice... it sounded so American.

She walked towards me, but she tripped and fell, probably because of those tall heels.

I helped her up, and took her to her seat. I noticed that her lipstick came off when she fell.

"It's nice to meet you! You don't look like the photo though." I said.

"Oh what do you know..." "Cecile" said and then chuckled.

It was obvious that this girl was not Cecile.

And after talking to her more, I knew who it was.

It was Helga.

Even though her hair was in a different style, I recognized that exact honey blonde color.

And I recognized her blue ocean eyes.

She really knew how to make me cry when she gave me those ocean eyes.

I also recognized her pink hair bow. Come on, that was the dead giveaway.

Though she was taller because of the heels, and for some reason her body was curvier.

Also, her voice wasn't boisterous. It was soft and sweet.

I just had some questions.

Why was Helga pretending to be my pen pal?

And did she read my letter, or change it?

And if she did either of those, how?

I was so confused. I thought she hated me.

We talked more, and she was revealing her soft side.

I knew it. She wasn't as bad as she acted.

I always knew she had a soft side.

And honestly, I was always intrigued about how she was never afraid to say what she thought.

She was unraveling her soft side and I liked it.

"So... is there anyone you like in your class?" She asked.

"Well... there's this one girl... Helga." I said.

Helga gasped.

"What do you notice about her especially?" She asked.

"She's sassy and boisterous and bugs me sometimes.

But I know she isn't as bad as she acts. I know that she has feelings like everyone else." I said.

Helga smiled.

"Why are you smiling?" I asked.

"Heh... no reason. I wasn't smiling." She said.

I looked out the window, and I realized that Ruth had showed up and was sitting at a booth outside of Chez Pierre.

I was enjoying spending time with Helga, but I couldn't leave Ruth there alone.

"Uh... I need to go get some water..." I said.

"But Arnold, there's literally water right in front of you." Helga said.

I ran over to Ruth anyway.

"Ah forget it." I heard Helga say.

I need to work on better excuses. I have to stop with these awkward excuses!

"Hi Ruth." I said.

I've always dreamed of saying "Hi Ruth." I finally got to.

"How do you know my name? Also I'll have a yahoo soda." Ruth said.

"Oh... I'm not the busboy, sorry." I said.

"Then who are you!" Ruth said.

"I guess you were wondering who anonymous is." I said.

"Oh please. Everyone knows who anonymous is. He's a famous poet."

"Huh?"

"Everytime we read a poem at school, it's always by that guy, anonymous."

Um what?

What did Ruth say?

That was dumb.

Ruth doesn't know what anonymous means?

"Can we just talk some?" I asked.

"Ok but when anonymous gets here, you're gonna have to go." Ruth said.

Is she for real right now?

We started talking some... and I had so many doubts about her. We had nothing in common, and I'm not the type to this stuff but... she was dumber than a box of rocks.

She taught me a lesson. You shouldn't judge a person by their looks. That day, I realized that I just liked the idea of her. But not her.

"I'm gonna go now." I said.

"Ok Alfred." She said.

I went back to Helga aka Cecile. I wasn't gonna bother making more excuses to leave. I was having so much more fun with Helga than Ruth. Helga is just so interesting and complex, and I knew she had a soft side and is sensitive too.

And besides, Ruth never cared about me. I looked out the window and saw her bonding with another guy.

I started caring more about Helga with this experience.

"Did you finally find water?" Helga asked sarcastically.

"Yeah..." I said.

The waiter came over and asked what we wanted.

"I'll just have a hamburger." I said.

It looks like it's a literal crime to order that in a French restaurant. Everyone's mouth dropped open.

"We have the steak tartare." The waiter said.

"Ok, I'll have that." I said.

I tried to tell the waiter how I wanted it cooked but he was rude about it. Dang...

Helga ordered something that I don't remember what it's called.

"What did you order?" I asked.

"I don't remember how to say it in English." Helga said.

Heh... Helga was kinda cute pretending to know about French stuff.

Our food came and it seemed like Helga enjoyed it until she actually found out what it was.

"Not many young people enjoy the cow brains and eggs..." The waiter said.

"Excuse me what." Helga said and then ran to the bathroom to throw up.

When she came back, her hair was down instead of being tied up in that poodle-esque hairstyle. I think that's the first time I ever saw her with her hair down, and it looked really cute. Her womanly curves were also gone, and she looked more like herself. I don't know what she was using to make it look like she had curves, nor what happened to it.

After dinner Helga and I walked out, and that's when something super crazy happened. Like, really, really crazy.

The real Cecile showed up.

"Hi, I am Cecile!" Cecile said.

This was a wild situation. The real Cecile had showed up? What was I gonna do? This is crazy.

"You can't be Cecile... because she is Cecile." I said.

"Arnold, what is going on?" Cecile said.

Gerald then ran over. "Hi, I'm Arnold." He said.

I'm glad Gerald covered for me, but now he was pretending to be me. What a wild night bro.

"This was a crazy night." Helga said.

"Yeah... I just have one question. Who are you?" I asked.

I obviously already knew who it was. But if she pretended to be someone else to go out with me, she clearly wasn't ready to tell me who she was. I didn't want to tell her I knew who it was, because I didn't want to stress her out. If she tells me, then she tells me. If she doesn't, then she'll tell me when she is ready one day.

"I can't tell you." Helga said.

"I understand." I said.

I grabbed Helga's hand, spun her around, dipped her down, and kissed her.

That was the day I started falling in love with her.

_3 years later..._

Helga and I are dating now. We confessed our feelings for each other.

"Arnold... I have something to tell you." Helga said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'm Cecile." Helga said.

I smiled.

"I know. If I thought you were someone else, I wouldn't have kissed you like that." I said.

**The end.**


End file.
